Yes, Massa, I’ll take him to the kitchen, in right quick time, and show him to de cook. Come along buck.
That ain’t his name, said Webb. Call him Walter.
Come along den Water dis way. Dis darkey stuff your skin like a Christmas turkey. Come den, quick, quick come.
Sambo lead the way, and Walter followed. After going about a mile, they came to a small flat in a hollow, near which was a spring of cool water.
Near the spring was a large log house. Sambo conducted Walter into the house, and spread before him venison and corn bread, which he devoured with an appetite. Then they returned to the surveying party.
Now, said Webb, can you find the way back to where you shot the panther?
Oh yes, replied the boy. It is just down the hill there, can’t you hear the water roar?
The whole party now started, and in a few minutes was at the scene of the encounter. There laid the panther, the largest of his species.
Webb set the men at work to take off his hide, while he and Walter went to see the destruction caused by the water-spout the day before. Not a vestige of either house was to be seen. The beaver dam was dry, the cleared land was washed and gone down the stream. A cat, and a cat only, was left to tell the tale.